Former Vermont State Police Sgt. Jim Deeghan leaves Vermont District Court in Burlington last month after a status conference. / EMILY McMANAMY/Free Press

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The defense lawyer for former Vermont State Police Sgt. James Deeghan, who is charged with time-sheet padding, has blocked the public release of the names of nearly 1,000 motorists who unknowingly had traffic tickets written against their licenses by the longtime patrol commander.

Chittenden County State’s Attorney T. J. Donovan said defense lawyer James Murdoch, on behalf of Deeghan, objected to the release of the names written on the fake traffic tickets dating back to 2000.

The Vermont State Police, in response to a three-month-old public records request from the Burlington Free Press and prodding by the governor’s office, was scheduled on Thursday to release the names on the 973 bogus tickets. Deeghan is accused of writing them in an attempt to justify or document large amounts of overtime he never worked.

State police balked on Thursday at Donovan’s insistence. The prosecutor, who last week said he had no objection to the release of the information, pointed the finger at Murdoch for not allowing the public documents to be given out.

Donovan provided an American Bar Association model rule, adopted in Vermont and cited by Murdoch, that says a prosecutor shall “except for statements that are necessary to inform the public of the nature and extent of the prosecutor’s action and that serve a legitimate law enforcement purpose, refrain from making extrajudicial comments that have a substantial likelihood of heightening public condemnation of the accused.”

It goes on to say that prosecutors also need to “exercise reasonable care to prevent investigators, law enforcement personnel, employees or other persons assisting or associated with the prosecutor in a criminal case from making an extrajudicial statement that the prosecutor would be prohibited from making.”

The rule says nothing about public records.

Donovan said he understands public records are not mentioned, but until he has a chance to meet next week with Murdoch to further discuss the situation, he wants state police to keep the names under wraps.

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Murdoch, who has repeatedly declined to speak about the case since Deeghan’s arrest, could not be reached for comment Thursday. Murdoch was on an out-of-state vacation and nobody at his law firm was available to speak about the case, his secretary said.

A message left at the Colchester home of Deeghan, a longtime patrol commander in Chittenden and Lamoille counties, was not returned.

Donovan, Gov. Peter Shumlin and Public Safety Commissioner Keith Flynn have repeatedly made personal pledges to taxpayers about ensuring transparency in the Deeghan case since it broke in July.

“The Governor’s position is unchanged. We will continue to be as transparent as possible without harming the State’s Attorney’s ability to secure a conviction in this important case,” she said in an e-mail to the Free Press.

“We have recently been advised by the State’s Attorney that the release of the information the Free Press seeks will harm the ability to pursue this case. As soon as that is no longer a concern, the Department of Public Safety will produce the many records the Free Press seeks as the Department has been preparing to do over the past many weeks,” she wrote.

“Transparency is a top priority of the Governor, and so is ensuring that justice is served in this case through a positive resolution for Vermont taxpayers,” the statement ends.

Shumlin had personally pledged to a Burlington Free Press reporter on Oct. 24 following a gubernatorial debate that the state police would be complying with the public records request for the names. Donovan as recently as two weeks ago said he had no objection to the release.

State police had up to 10 days to respond to the Sept. 17 public records request by the Free Press, but as of Thursday still had not filed a written response. Flynn, who was out of the office, said he was unsure how often state police failed to comply with deadlines for public record requests.

Flynn referred the question to the department’s legal counsel Rosemary Gretkowski. Gretkowski passed the question on to department spokeswoman Stephanie Desaro, who said she thought state police had responded, but might be wrong.

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“Therefore, while the request may not be complete, the Department has been working on it with you repeatedly over the past weeks. Although the Department could take the position that the information you have requested is exempt under the Public Records Act, the Administration and DPS have been working to release as much information as possible once we are assured that the release of the information will not interfere with the criminal proceedings,” Desaro wrote.

A Free Press investigation during the summer revealed Deeghan was the sixth-highest paid state employee in Vermont in 2011-12. A public records request showed he was paid $135,575, including $58,325 in overtime, shift differential and other supplemental income.

Deeghan, a 22-year veteran, resigned July 10 amid reports of the start of a criminal investigation into time sheet padding.

Three days later, Deeghan, 49, pleaded not guilty to two counts of false claims centering on the two time sheets he submitted in June. Donovan charged Deeghan collected an extra $3,023 in June by claiming 63 hours of unproven overtime.

A subsequent investigation showed Deeghan has bilked taxpayers out of $139,332 between Dec. 21, 2008 and July 14, 2012, state police have said. The money was spread across overtime, annual leave and a special patrol contract in Jericho.

Ticketed still not notified

The Free Press confirmed Thursday that the Vermont State Police have never notified the 973 motorists that they had traffic tickets written against their licenses and entered into the state police computer.

A draft of a letter from State Police Director Tom L’Esperance to those getting the bogus tickets never went in the mail this week because of an objection by Murdoch, Donovan said. The plan was to send the letter just before the 973 names were released, but the objection by Murdoch put that alert letter on hold.

Donovan said he plans to talk to Murdoch again next week about his two objections: to the release of the names of motorists with bogus tickets and for disclosure of the proposed state police letter from L’Esperance to the unsuspected ticketed motorists.

The names of the motorists and their bogus tickets still remain in the Vermont State Police computer. It is unclear if, when and how each of those people will get the fake tickets removed from the state police files. They are considered evidence, and police do not want to tamper with the computer while the case is pending.

While those 973 names got into a statewide police computer, none of the tickets are known to have been recorded by the Vermont Judicial Bureau, which resolves the tickets, or the Vermont Motor Vehicle Department, which compiles driving records.